Fujairah Superstars: Jacobson and Tabatabaei score, remain in contention

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
9/1/2025 – Pranav Venkatesh kept the sole lead at the Fujairah Global Chess Championship after drawing with Abhimanyu Mishra in round eight, reaching 6 points. Two players closed in on the leader, as Brandon Jacobson defeated Aydin Suleymanli and Amin Tabatabaei (pictured) outplayed Andrew Hong, both moving to 5½ points. In the final round, Pranav will face Alan Pichot, while Jacobson and Tabatabaei meet Nihal Sarin and Alexander Donchenko respectively, all with tournament victory still in sight. | Photo: Anna Shtourman
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Pranav enters final round with half-point lead

Pranav Venkatesh retained his position as sole leader of the Superstars tournament in Fujairah after drawing with Abhimanyu Mishra in 55 moves. Playing black, Pranav even created slight winning chances, but eventually settled for half a point, keeping his lead intact going into the final day. He now stands on 6 points, half a point ahead of two nearest rivals.

From the chasing pack of eight players who had entered the day a point behind, two managed to score full points to close the gap. 21-year-old US grandmaster Brandon Jacobson defeated Aydin Suleymanli with the white pieces. Suleymanli advanced his kingside pawns in the middlegame, a risky strategy that backfired, and Jacobson duly converted his advantage.

Brandon Jacobson, Aydin Suleymanli

Brandon Jacobson and Aydin Suleymanli | Photo: Anna Shtourman

Amin Tabatabaei also made progress, overcoming 20-year-old US grandmaster Andrew Hong in a 63-move battle. The Iranian converted an extra pawn in a major-piece ending to join Jacobson on 5½ points.

As both Jacobson and Tabatabaei have already faced Pranav and also played each other earlier in the event, the three frontrunners will all appear on separate boards in the decisive ninth round. Pranav will have the white pieces against Spanish grandmaster Alan Pichot. Jacobson will take black against top seed Nihal Sarin, while Tabatabaei will also play black, against Germany's Alexander Donchenko.

Pichot earned the chance to face the leader by defeating Pranesh Munirethinam in round eight. The Spanish grandmaster capitalised on an opening misstep, launching a sharp sacrificial attack that forced a quick collapse.

After having sacrificed two pawns already, Pichot played the devastating 20.Ne6 here. There followed 20...fxe6 (what else?) 21.Qh5+ Ke7 22.Bg5+, opening up the f-file.

Resignation came after 22...Nf6 23.Rxf6, threatening mate on f7, while 23...Bxf6 fails to 24.Bxf6+ Kxf6 25.Rf1+, with checkmate next move. Brutal.

Alan Pichot

Alan Pichot during round six | Photo: Anna Shtourman

Standings after round 8

Rk. Name Pts. TB1
1 PRANAV, V 6 2636
2 JACOBSON, Brandon 5,5 2634
3 TABATABAEI, M. Amin 5,5 2600
4 PICHOT, Alan 5 2640
5 SJUGIROV, Sanan 5 2608
6 DONCHENKO, Alexander 5 2606
7 MISHRA, Abhimanyu 5 2604
8 MARTINEZ, Jose Eduardo 5 2596
9 NIHAL, Sarin 5 2593
10 NARAYANAN, S L 4,5 2652
11 ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan 4,5 2640
12 MURADLI, Mahammad 4,5 2639
13 HONG, Andrew 4,5 2636
14 ADITYA, Mittal 4,5 2630
15 ZHU, Jiner 4,5 2627
16 LU, Shanglei 4,5 2611
17 CHEPARINOV, Ivan 4,5 2607
18 DANESHVAR, Bardiya 4,5 2603
19 SULEYMANLI, Aydin 4,5 2600
20 SHANKLAND, Sam 4,5 2597
21 PRANESH, M 4 2645
22 DUDIN, Gleb 4 2628
23 GREBNEV, Aleksey 4 2622
24 MOVAHED, Sina 4 2617
25 BHARATH, Subramaniyam H 4 2610

...44 players

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.